Police: Woman’s ’evil’ kidnapping plot led to baby’s death

Associated Press

March 26, 2015Updated: March 26, 2015 10:14pm

LONG BEACH, Calif. — A woman masterminded a scheme to kidnap two babies and pass them off as her own to cover up a lie she told her boyfriend about giving birth to twins, police revealed about a plot that left a 3-week-old baby girl dead and four relatives of the children injured.

Giseleangelique Rene D’Milian, 47, and three others were arrested Wednesday. Police from two Southern California cities revealed details at a news conference Thursday about the plot they believe led to the January death of tiny Eliza Delacruz of Long Beach and an assault last month on a 23-year-old mother who was targeted for her 4-month-old son. The boy was not harmed.

The crimes began when D’Milian told her married boyfriend that she had given birth to his twins in December while she was out of the country, police said. There is no indication that he knew of the plans.

“She fabricated a story and wanted him to believe these children were his, Why? We don’t know. We’re not sure what the motivation was,” Long Beach Police Lt. Lloyd Cox said, adding that D’Milian was searching for children with a dark complexion that matched her own.

Investigators in Long Beach and El Segundo would not say how Eliza died and declined to discuss what may have motivated the woman’s three suspected accomplices beyond saying that the man they believe carried out the attacks was a friend and that a woman who was arrested was D’Milian’s daughter.

“I can’t summarize it any other way,” he said. “In my 29 years, I’ve never seen anything like this. We’ve never seen anything like this where someone goes out looking for babies and they attempt to kill the mothers. It’s just unbelievable.”

The details emerged a week after a Colorado woman who told her family she was pregnant lured an expectant mother and cut the unborn baby from her belly, authorities said. The baby didn’t survive, but the mother has been released from a hospital.

In California, D’Milian, of Thousand Oaks, was arrested on suspicion of murder, kidnapping, attempted murder and conspiracy. Anthony McCall, 29, of Oceanside, was arrested on the same charges.

D’Milian’s daughter, Charisse Shelton, 30, and Todd Boudreaux, 44, were arrested on suspicion of helping cover up the crimes, authorities said. All were being held without bail except Shelton, whose bail was set at $1 million.

It wasn’t clear if the four had attorneys or would request public defenders at a court hearing set for Friday.

Eliza’s mother, father and uncle were shot and wounded in their Long Beach home Jan. 3, and McCall kidnapped the baby, police said. The child was picked at random after D’Milian saw her and her mother get on a public bus and tailed it, police said.

The baby’s body was discovered the following day in a trash bin in Imperial Beach, a city on the Mexican border about 100 miles to the south.

Another woman was beaten with a baseball bat Feb. 6 in an El Segundo hotel while her 4-month-old son was in the room. Hotel employees interrupted the assault, but McCall escaped, police said.

D’Milian also started a fake charity focusing on 1- to 2-month-old babies and asked her friends to spread the word in an attempt to find other children to kidnap, authorities said.

She may have identified Eliza’s mother through that network, police said, but the mother told police she had never seen D’Milian before. Police don’t believe there were other victims.

After the mother recovered, she told authorities that a woman pulled over in a black Range Rover when she got off the bus and asked about the baby.

Police got new tips and witnesses who led them to the Range Rover and the suspects after releasing composite sketches and surveillance video.